00.00.17
Giorgi Djodjishvili, internally displaced person
We didn’t expect there would be a war. We didn’t know anything. I came out of my house and saw planes coming. I through me down on the ground, not to get hit. My wife was out on the yard and was closer to the bomb. We ran away. The plane continued to circle above the village. There was a truck in the village where everyone gathered. We took off with nothing but the clothes we wore.
00.01.10
When we had left the south ossetians came and took our belongings.
Then they burned down the houses.
One man who didn’t manage to flee was shot dead.
00.01.31
Reporter
More than a year has passed since the war between Russia and Georgia.
The city of Gori has recovered, but looked like this in August 2008.
The media reports from the tiny, but strategically important country in Caucasus are now fewer, but the situation perhaps worse than ever.
Political crisis, lousy economy and a wave of internally displaced persons to take care of.
00.01.56
Giorgi Djodjishvili, internally displaced person
When we took off with the truck the road was bombed near the football field.
It was getting dark and the driver didn’t see the hole in the road.
The truck overturned and we almost got under it. But we made it.
When we got away the whole village was full of Russian tanks.
We were all unarmed, but they bombed us anyway.
00.0.36
Reporter
About 130 000 ethnic Georgians have been forced to leave the out breaking regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The strategically important area of Khodori in Abkhazia has been totally emptied on ethnic Georgians.
How many who has been able to return to their homes in South Ossetia is unclear, but there are still ethnic Georgians leaving their houses and moving south, to the Georgian, safer side of the border.
And this is where many of them end up. In huge permanent refugee camps. This one contains 2000 identical small houses, built in the middle of nowhere in the Georgian countryside.
00.03.17
Tamar Kiknadze, professor political science
They have no infrastructure there, what can they do? I have been there and it is terrible to see. It's like reservation. But maybe these days it's better than nothing. But I would like to solve this problem more successfully.
00.03.39
Reporter
Professor Tamar Kiknadze concludes the country’s biggest problems and the dissatisfaction with the president.
00.03.45
Tamar Kiknadze, professor political science
Few people support him and his rate is very low. We face political crisis because our political and economical situation is very poor. We have lost territories, many refugees and high rate of poverty. People are starving and conditions are terrible. We need a normal government in order to organize a normal life for our citizens. If they can't do this, they must go away, resign.
00.05.04
Reporter
People are unhappy. During this summer they demonstrated for two hole months outside the parliament. A major part of the capital’s main street Rustaveli was closed and the demonstrators refused to leave until the president stepped down. But still, he hasn’t.
00.04.42
Demonstrator
There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of media, no free court and it's all against the democratic institutes. We still have no idea why this war happened, but we know that lots of people are killed.
00.05.04
Reporter
There were massive demonstrations last year as well, president Saakashvili solved that issue by clearing the streets with force. This time the president needed a more diplomatic solution as a number of nations condemned his previous actions.
00.05.19
Demonstrator
Until Saakashvili resigns we will stay here absolutely peacefully.
00.05.25
Reporter
However, clashes were inevitable. Demonstrators demanded the release of three members of the opposition, held in custody. One of the opposition leaders made efforts to calm down the situation that resulted in the injury of 20 demonstrators, three police men and a journalist.
The political opposition in Georgia wants to put an end to what they call president Saakashvili’s undemocratic ruling. The problem however, is that the opposition has internal conflicts.
Peter Semneby is an EU diplomat in southern Caucasus, he has been given the difficult task mediating between the Georgian Government and the opposition.
At a meeting at the Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi the opposition parties are trying to unify.
Nino Burjanadze is the former speaker of the parliament, who is now one of the main opposition leaders.
00.06.20
Nino Burjanadze, opposition leader
Our government is not implementing obligations that make this country democratic, free and fair.
00.06.30
Reporter
Nino Burjanadze var en nyckelfigur i Georgiens folkliga och fredliga uppror 2003 som kommit att kallas Rosornas revolution.
Nino Burjanadze was one of the key figures in the peaceful revolution in 2003, called the Rose Revolution.
00.06.38
Nino Burjanadze, opposition leader
In the very beginning, the first two three years, we made big progress in the country. There were more positive things than negative things. But unfortunately we made wrong steps in things like media freedom and we came to a very dramatic point. People began to protest against the ruling.
The country men were not dependant of the system and institutions, but the personalities which is unacceptable for a democracy.
The turning point was August 2008 when Saakashvili involved us in a war. We lost 20 percent of our territory, we received military Russian bases back and a lot of other problems. It postponed Georgia's chances to be member of NATO and closer cooperation with the EU. In many ways the country has been damaged.
00.07.58
Reporter
My request for an interview with the president has been ignored. I still haven’t heard anything from his office.
The relation between Georgia and Russia are deep frozen. Even though a year has passed since the war, the situation is still tensed.
In May 2009 president Saakashvili claimed that there was an attempted coup at a military base outside Tbilisi. He also claimed that the coup was funded by the Russians. The government immediately sent tanks to the base, but there were no signs of a coup.
And in the midst of this tensed situation, NATO carried out a military exercise in Georgia. Russia calls it an open provocation, and replies with a massive military exercise and strengthen its military presence in the de facto occupied Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A new deal was made between the parties involved. The deal puts Russia in charge of guarding the borders between the out breaking regions and Georgia.
And that is bad new for tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians, whose houses are on the Russian controlled side of the border.
This is the European Monitoring Group in Georgia, EUMM. Their mission is to observe and report to the European Union.
00.09.17
EUMM officicial
We are now in Mtskheta field office. We have to follow the highway, and then leave the highway up to the Administrative Border Line in Odzizi.
01.09.34
Reporter
It should also be mentioned that The European Union has had peace keeping forces in the region before. The forces however, had to leave this year as Russia stopped an extension of the mandate.
00.09.55
John Rosén, EUMM official
Reporter: Can you show us the territory that the Russians now control?
John Rosén: 500 metres that way there is a Russian outpost. Then the border follows the riverbank up that way where the Russian base camp is located.
Reporter: So this territory was not under Russian control before the war?
John Rosén: That is correct, this was Georgian territory.
00.10.45
Reporter
Nikolos Koreli and his wife live right between the Georgian and the Russian forces. The village contains six house holds.
00.10.55
Nikolos Koreli and his wife
When the dog barks at night, we’re scared that someone is coming to attack us. The Russians are over there with there arms, and the Georgians are over here with their arms. Is there would be a gun fire we are right in the middle. We’re right in the middle and it’s horrible.
The other day the Russians came to us. My wife asked them to hide from the Georgian soldiers.
- Why, are you scared, the Russians asked?
- Well, we are not scared, we can open fire if we want, they said.
But we told them that violence won’t solve anything. They’re very aggressive against our soldiers. That’s how we live here.
00.11.41
Reporter
The Koreli’s have been offered a house in one of the permanent refugee camps, but they chose to stay, despite the uncertainty.
But Giorgi Djodjishvili has no alternative to the refugee camp. His farm in South Ossetia has become a base for Russian forces. Giorgi mourns his farm.
00.12.03
Giorgi Djodjishvili, internally displaced person
It was a beautiful farm. The Russians made it their head quarters. There was wine, vodka and six big sacks of flour. I had 80 chickens, so big that two men wouldn’t manage to eat one. I had 40 baby turkeys and one male turkey, so big that 20 men would manage to eat it. Everything was left. Of course the South Ossetians and the Russians were happy. We fled and got nothing. They through us out.